Florida State soccer: Seminoles score five second half goals in win over Florida Gulf Coast

Florida State women’s soccer continued its dominance at home Thursday.

The Seminoles defeated Florida Gulf Coast 5-0 in their second to last match before they begin ACC play next week.

For the first time this season FSU (3-0-2) has won two straight matches. The Seminoles and FGCU (2-4) were locked in a 0-0 tie at halftime until the defending NCAA champions finally took control in the second half.

They are now unbeaten in 14 straight games, dating back to the last game of the regular season in 2021.

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Before a home crowd of 1,215 Clara Robbins scored her first two goals of the season, while Olivia Garcia and Emma Bissell added a score for Florida State. Jody Brown and Garcia collected assists.

"The message in halftime was just, 'let's keep playing.' Let's keep pushing on because they're still in this game, so let's come out strong,'" Robbins said. "I think we did just that."

The Seminoles have gone unbeaten in 19 straight games at home, including 18 wins in the span. The last home loss came at the hands of UCLA in the 2019 NCAA quarterfinals.

FSU is now 3-0 all time against the Eagles. Here are three takeaways from the contest.

Second half warriors

For the second straight match, the net opened up for the Seminoles in the second half. Following a four-goal second half against rival Florida on Sunday, FSU scored five goals in a second half romp of FGCU.

The Seminoles out-shot the Eagles 11 to 3 in the first half. They were even more aggressive in the second half, finishing with a 28-6 advantage, including a 12-2 tilt on shots on goal.

"We talked about continuing to look for those spaces and behind them and then we just talked about kind of having that balance between composure and being relaxed," FSU head coach Brian Pensky said.

"We told them to put your foot on the pedal and I thought they came out with a real kind of fire, flame and energy about them. Getting the early one I think helped kind of kind of allowed everybody to take a deep breath and just continue to push."

Robbins opened the scoring two minutes into the second half. Garcia scored off an assist from Jenna Nighswonger in the 56th minute, which was subsequently followed by a goal by Robbins off an assist from Garcia two minutes later.

Bissell scored in the 82nd minute and Lebdaoui capped off the scoring in the 90th minute.

"I mean, it's been a few games and the whole team struggled to score the first few games," Robbins said. "So I think like for all of us to get to get a 5-0 finish, I think that was really good for us. And yeah, it felt good for me too."

Near hat-trick

After not scoring in the first four matches, Robbins nearly completed her hat trick in the 70th minute, but FGCU goalie Katie Sullivan made a diving catch to prevent the score.

"Obviously, I'll want that third one back," Robbins said. "But it was a good result for us."

As has been a theme for the Seminoles this season, different players were able to find the back of the net.

Robbins and Lebdaoui were the eighth and ninth different players to score goals for the team this season. Nighswonger, Bissell and Garica each have scored two goals. Last year’s leading scorer, Beata Olsson, along with Heather Payne, Jody Brown and Onyi Echgeni, all have scored one goal each.

"We don't care where it's going to come from," Pensky said. "We just care that it comes and now like you just said we're up to (nine) different school scorers and that's a big deal. It's special only being five games in and against some pretty good teams. So we just got to keep building"

Dominant in the goal

While the offense has found different scorers, the consistent on the backline for FSU has been Cristina Roque in the goal. Roque improved to 29-0-8 in her career as the goalie for the Seminoles and started in two national championships.

Thursday was her 21st career shutout. She finished with two saves.

"She had to make a couple of saves," Pensky said. "We don't like giving up the corners we gave up. We don't like giving up the shots we gave up, but at the same time with the end of the day we kept the ball to the back of the net."

UP NEXT

Florida State will hit the road again for its non-conference finale with a match against Rice at 2 p.m. Sunday in Houston. The Seminoles open ACC play against Boston College on Sept. 16.

Contact Ehsan Kassim at 256-300-5313 or ekassim@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Seminole soccer: Clara Robbins leads way in 5-0 win over Florida Gulf Coast